Preakness Contenders

Facing winners for the first time in his fledgling career, Multiplier was as game as he was fast to beat favored Hedge Fund and win the Illinois Derby (G3) April 22 at Hawthorne Race Course near Chicago.

It marked just the fourth lifetime start for the bay son of multiple Grade 1 winner The Factor, coming 4 ½ weeks after breaking his maiden going a mile and 70 yards on the dirt at Fair Grounds as the favorite in a field of nine.

Multiplier did not race as a 2-year-old but went off as the top choice of 11 horses in his debut Jan. 21 at Fair Grounds, where he got off to a slow start and rallied on the outside after trailing early to get up for third, a nose away from second.

In his second start, Multiplier overcame an early bump from the gate to save ground along the rail in mid-pack before being swung outside for a stretch run that came up a neck shy of the favored winner Souper Tapit.

Multiplier ran the Illinois Derby in a swift 1:47.98 for 1 1/8 miles over a fast main track, the second-fastest time in the race’s 59-year history, coming with a determined run down the stretch to win by a head in his stakes debut. It was nearly five lengths back to third-place finisher It’s Your Nickel.

Jockey

Joel Rosario

Third aboard Creative Cause in his Preakness debut in 2012, Rosario was fourth with Orb in 2013 and second with Ride On Curlin in 2014 and 28-1 long shot Tale of Verve behind Triple Crown champion American Pharoah in 2015.

Rosario, 32, was a finalist for the Eclipse Award as top jockey for the second straight year in 2014 after winning 215 races and more than $21.5 million in purses including victories in the Belmont Stakes (G1) with Tonalist and Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) with Bobby’s Kitten.

The previous year, Rosario won both the $10 million Dubai World Cup (G1) on Animal Kingdom and his first Kentucky Derby with Orb, and set a track record in claiming the Keeneland spring meet title.

Rosario moved his tack to the East Coast on a full-time basis in the summer of 2012 at Saratoga, finishing a solid fifth with 29 wins. He blossomed that winter at Gulfstream Park with 89 victories, second only to defending champion Javier Castellano.

He grew up on a farm in the Dominican Republic that had horses and donkeys and used horses for transportation. With permission from his family, he attended jockey school in his native country and after six months, at the age of 14, was already a licensed professional.

Rosario won four riding titles in the Dominican Republic and was second once before he came to the U.S. in 2006. He rode in Northern California for a year before moving south, and enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2009.

Rosario ended jockey Rafael Bejarano’s streak of six straight Southern California riding titles at Hollywood Park’s spring-summer meet that year, winning 79 races, and went on to take Del Mar’s meet title as well, with 55 victories, repeating as leading rider there in 2010 and 2011.

In 2008, Rosario picked up his first graded stakes win with Zappa in the Grade 2 San Pasquel, and the following year he rode Dancing in Silks to victory in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. He made his Triple Crown debut with Make Music for Me, who finished fourth in the 2010 Kentucky Derby.

Owner

Gary Barber, et al

A partnership between Gary Barber, Adam Wachtel and George Kerr purchased Multiplier privately from previous owner American Equistock between his victory in the Illinois Derby (G3) April 22 and the Kentucky Derby May 6.

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1957, Gary Barber co-founded Spyglass Entertainment with Roger Birnbaum in 1998 and in 2010 became CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He has served as executive producer for more than 50 films, and his companies have produced such motion pictures as Academy Award-winning Memoirs of a Geisha and Academy Award-nominated Seabiscuit, The Insider and The Sixth Sense.

Barber came to the U.S. shortly after winning a trip to watch the 1982 Arlington Million. He has owned horses solely or in several partnerships since 2001 including champion filly Catch a Glimpse and Lexie Lou, the 2014 Queen’s Plate winner and Canada’s Horse of the Year.

Adam Wachtel was part-owner of 2016 Preakness winner Exaggerator. Wachtel, 54, is the son of late prominent New York owner Ed Wachtel who grew up attending the racetrack and bought his first horse while a college student. He breeds and syndicates horses as Wachtel Stable.

George Kerr, 62, is a former Democratic state lawmaker from Old Orchard Beach, Maine who, like Wachtel, was part of the Exaggerator ownership group through Head of Plains Partners. Kerr had two uncles in Massachusetts that owned or trained thoroughbreds, and first got involved in the game in the early 1980s.

Trainer

Brendan Walsh

A 44-year-old native of Cork County, Ireland, Brendan Walsh took out his trainer’s license in 2011 and started one horse before the end of the year. From less than 300 starters per year, he has grown to win at least 20 races and top $1 million in purses earned annually since 2014, and is on pace for a career year in 2017.

Already Walsh has 20 wins and more than $1.2 million in purse earnings with graded stakes victories in the New Orleans (G2) and Mineshaft (G3) handicaps with Honorable Duty in addition to Multiplier’s Illinois Derby (G3) triumph.

Last year, Walsh set a career high with four graded stakes wins as well as single-season starts (269), wins (45) and purses ($2.07 million).

Walsh completed high school and jockey school in Ireland before taking the stud management course at Darley, going on to work at its Irish division in Kildangan. While there he spent winters breaking and riding horses and summers working for trainer John Hammond in England.

Eventually Walsh went on to spend nine winters in Dubai, first under the tutelage of trainer Tom Albertrani, traveling with Godolphin’s horses around the world including Breeders’ Cup winners Daylaami and Fantastic Light. He later worked for trainers Mark Wallace in England and fellow Irishman for four years Eddie Kenneally in the U.S.